LITO Mallagay hails from Boliney, an upland town of Abra Province but he has spent most of his adult years in Baguio. He has a way of forming creative things using a long-nose plier out of a galvanized wire that he probably developed during his construction worker years. His moniker as Barrot Man stemmed from the word “barrot” or wire in the same token as the former social media sensation “carrot-man”.
Mallagay of Wandy Arts & Crafts Shop is one of the twenty entrepreneurs from the Cordillera Administrative Region who successfully completed the required training modules of the Kapatid Mentor Me Program of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-Cordillera in June of 2017. He has successfully defended an entrepreneurial plan and business concept in front of a panel composed of experts in the related field.
His wired works formed into dragons, flowers, trees and human figures resembling Igorot warriors can be seen displayed at the Bookends Bookshop along T. Claudio Street at Baguio’s Central Business District which also serves as the favorite watering hole of the Pasakalye members.
Aware that his works need more fine-tuning and levelling-up in terms of design, quality and packaging, the craftsman hopes that with the help of government agencies, his products will soon find its way to the shelves of big souvenir stores or even galleries in big cities here or abroad.
He was conferred as mentor with a certificate signed by DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez and Jose Ma. Concepcion II of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship during a closing ceremony with DTI-Baguio/Benguet Provincial Director Freda Gawisan and Mayor Mauricio Domogan’s executive secretary Rafael Tallocoy.
The Kapatid Mentor Me program is a coaching and mentoring approach of DTI and the PCE meant to help the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on the different aspects and stages of business operations. Mentors from leading corporation offers a coaching and mentoring approach and participating MSMEs like Mallagay learn different facets of business operations.
For the 2018 year-end issue of the Baguio Midland Courier, Mallagay was nominated as “Wire Crafts-man of the Year” following a series of arts and crafts display and exhibits organized by DTI and other agencies such as the Independence Day, Trabaho, Negosyo at Kabuhayan (TNK) jobs fair and exhibit held at the Puso ng Baguio along Session Road, Baguio City. Today, Mallagay can easily be reached via social media with the hashtag #Barrotman.
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